1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally related to networking and more particularly related to ad hoc networks of intelligent devices that are self coordinated over a wired or wireless network infrastructure.
2. Related Art
Conventional machines, depending on their date of manufacture and their intended use, typically contain a great deal of information. For example, a conventional vending machine may contain information relating to its internal status and its inventory of products. A conventional assembly line machine may also contain information relating to its status and inventory, in addition to information relating to its uptime, throughput, and perhaps error rate. Various other types of conventional machines similarly maintain information useful to the manufacturers, owners, users, and maintenance crews associated with the particular machine.
Staying with the vending machine example, conventional machines that have been manufactured within the last decade or so typically have the ability to provide status information and also have the ability to receive limited operational control and initialization set up data from an external source.
In the vending machine industry, some companies are pushing for automation and attempting to introduce new products for interacting with vending machines. For example, some conventional products for interacting with vending machines include a bi-directional exchange capability whereby the vending machine can communicate with an external transmitting device. Typically, the external transmitting device can physically plug into the vending machine or establish a wireless connection with the vending machine in order to exchange information with the vending machine.
Generally, the information exchange between the external transmitting device and the vending machine concerns financial data relating to a sales transaction and the movement of funds. Various different external transmitting devices have been employed, including programmable cell phones and “smart” hand held storage devices containing available funds (e.g. “SmartCard” and “eSecure”).
For the last several years in the vending machine industry, software systems have been developed to manage certain functions with respect to a wide installed base of vending machines, including systems for accounting, inventory control, delivery route planning (e.g. for re-stocking), emergency repair scheduling, and many other related tasks. To obtain the necessary information for remote management of these functions, software utilities are being developed for moving data from the vending machines to a central processing site in order to carry out these planning and accounting functions.
Another recent improvement in the vending machine industry to simplify the gathering of data from vending machines has been the adoption of rules that govern the content of messages passed to and from vending machines. In particular, the Data Exchange Uniform Code Standard is slowly being adopted by manufacturers and software providers with the positive result being standardized access to vending machine information without having to create custom solutions. This standard also specifies the type of external connection that is wired into a given machine for attachment of the data gathering device.
Other industries have also developed and adopted standards that aid in the gathering of information from their industry specific machines. For example, protocols exist for Automated Machine Tool Control in manufacturing. Standard protocols exist on how to talk to laser machines, how to control welders and cutting machines and how to run production lines. Such protocols are an established part of the manufacturing industry.
One drawback of the parallel progression made by the various industries is the ubiquitous tendency for the protocols implemented by a particular industry to be unique to that industry. Another drawback that spans the various industries is the lack of established standards for information content. In the vending machine industry, for example, agreement on standardization has taken 13 years and it is still being modified. This type of problem persists throughout the various industries due to the generally large number of different types of machines within a single industry that have been designed over time to solve various problems unique to the industry.
Many other industries have not yet found the need (or the means) to establish common communication and machine control standards. Additionally, the parallel progression by the various industries has made migration of any conventional communication and machine control standards across industries extremely untenable. Finally, in most cases where methods have been developed to facilitate communication, such exchange of information is typically only between a single machine and some centralized entity. In these conventional systems, the central entity usually issues commands, requests status and other information, and delivers updates while the machine typically delivers the requested information and also may issue alerts.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in the conventional systems as described above.